Three attributes, together with a strong name (if applicable), determine the identity of an assembly: name, version, and culture. These attributes form the full name of the assembly and are required when referencing the assembly in code. You can use attributes to set an assembly's version and culture. The compiler or the Assembly Linker (Al.exe) sets the name value when the assembly is created, based on the file containing the assembly manifest.

Enumerated field indicating the culture that the assembly supports. An assembly can also specify culture independence, indicating that it contains the resources for the default culture.

Note:

The runtime treats any assembly that does not have the culture attribute set to null as a satellite assembly. Such assemblies are subject to satellite assembly binding rules. For more information, see How the Runtime Locates Assemblies.

You can use assembly manifest attributes to provide information in the assembly manifest, including title, description, the default alias, and configuration. The following table describes the assembly manifest attributes.

String value specifying a default alias to be used by referencing assemblies. This value provides a friendly name when the name of the assembly itself is not friendly (such as a GUID value). This value can also be used as a short form of the full assembly name.

String value indicating the name of the file that contains either the public key (if using delay signing) or both the public and private keys passed as a parameter to the constructor of this attribute. Note that the file name is relative to the output file path (the .exe or .dll), not the source file path.